Airplane Wi-Fi provider Gogo has a new, faster system.

The race for fast Internet at 30,000 feet is accelerating as airlines roll out new technologies and speedier connections—offering more productivity for business travelers but also encroaching on a rare refuge from the wired world.Gogo Inc., GOGO +1.74%the largest provider of inflight Internet in the U.S., on Wednesday plans to unveil a system that uses a combination of satellites and cellular towers, connecting airplanes to the Web at speeds six times as fast as its current best option.Virgin America Inc. will launch Gogo's new inflight Wi-Fi service in the second half of 2014 and says it expects to eventually upgrade its 53 aircraft with the product.That comes after JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU +5.50%received government approval last week to install a new high-capacity satellite link on many of its aircraft, an inflight Wi-Fi solution that can support streaming video to fliers' devices from Netflix Inc. NFLX +6.43%and Hulu, among others.JetBlue, which has lacked inflight Internet, plans to launch the service on some aircraft this year and equip its entire fleet of 180 aircraft by the end of 2015.Virgin America will launch Gogo's new inflight Wi-Fi service in the second half of 2014.Gogo sets the prices for its onboard Wi-Fi, with options including $14 one-day passes and $50 monthly passes.JetBlue said it is reviewing pricing for the service, but that basic Internet use initially will be free, while the airline will charge fliers for streaming content, which uses more bandwidth. Other airlines that provide Wi-Fi currently block access to streaming services like Netflix, to avoid cannibalizing their own fee-based inflight entertainment.The new technologies could mean Internet speeds in the air that are at least as fast as the average Internet speeds for Americans on the ground—something that could help break down flier resistance to paying and make the service profitable.Almost nine of 10 U.S. fliers said they think every flight should offer Wi-Fi, according to a survey of 2,000 people released last week by Honeywell International Inc., which makes equipment for providing in-flight Internet. Yet Gogo said about 6% of potential customers currently purchase its Internet on flights.Tim Farrar, a Menlo Park, Ca., satellite-industry consultant, said the same lower-than-expected percentage has generally held steady across the industry, "there's no indication of any dramatic shift" on the horizon and the trend could impede the swift growth that Gogo and rival services foresee.Some blame pokey speeds for that gap between desire and purchase. Fliers must share bandwidth, meaning that speeds slow when more passengers log on. David Cush, Virgin America's CEO, said that on average flights, about a fifth of its fliers pay for Wi-Fi, but that "it starts to top out at 30 to 35 users very simply because response time starts to degrade."Gogo says its new service will offer speeds of 60 megabits per second to each airplane, compared with 3 mbps on its original Wi-Fi connection, which 1,700 aircraft still use, and 10 mbps on an updated product launched last year, which about 300 aircraft have. Panasonic Avionics Corp., which provides Wi-Fi to about 2,000 aircraft internationally, says its speeds now average 5 mbps to 10 mbps.The average Internet connection on the ground in the U.S. is 8.6 mbps, according to Akamai Technologies Inc., a network operator.JetBlue is connecting its aircraft via ViaSat Inc.'s VSAT +1.35%satellites, the first time a commercial airline will use the higher-capacity Ka-band satellite spectrum, which some in the industry see as the future of inflight Internet. Gogo intends to use the same constellation.JetBlue said its new service would provide speeds of 12 mbps to each flier's device—not just the airplane, like on other providers. That model means "almost everyone on the airplane can enjoy that, not just one or two," said Don Buchman, ViaSat's director of mobile broadband.Consultants said that JetBlue may be able to deliver high speeds to each device if several dozen fliers are just surfing the Web, but if users gravitate toward more bandwidth-intensive applications, JetBlue may find it hard to meet expectations.

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